Productivity-based pay could avert future salary hike uproars, says PM
Published:Monday | September 4, 2023 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AMID ONGOING criticism of the massive salary increases granted to parliamentarians earlier this year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness says future controversy on such matter may be avoided by paying workers based on productivity.
Addressing a town hall meeting on housing and land at the Harmony Beach Park in Montego Bay, St James, last Thursday evening, Holness said performance-based compensation is part of his administration’s ongoing strategy for Jamaica’s development.
“If we are going to pay more, whether it is to politicians or publi- sector workers, we must now, as taxpayers, demand increased productivity, and productivity is not necessarily a word that we believe in. We are going to have a little more debate about compensation, but the next phase of your Government’s strategic redevelopment of the country is about what we call performance-based compensation, performance systems, performance accountability toward improving productivity, and we must get more out of every hour of work in the day,” said Holness.
“Going forward, Jamaica will never have this problem again if we keep the economy stable, if we keep inflation manageable and predictable, and so salaries would only be adjusted by an inflation factor and by one important factor which never comes up in any discussion, which is productivity. ‘Pay them by their work.’ That is where we are heading to,” Holness explained.
His declaration came two days after Bustamante Industrial Trade Union President Kavan Gayle stated that performance pay and incentive-type rewards and investments should be considered for Jamaica’s labour force in order to promote increased productivity.
In May this year, following public pushback against the parliamentarians’ pay hike – which saw Cabinet ministers getting a 230 per cent pay hike up to April 1, 2024 – the Human Resource Management Association of Jamaica (HRMAJ) recommended that 30 per cent of parliamentarians’ total compensation should be based on their level of performance in office.
In 2020, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke suggested that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration would be open to considering performance-based pay for government ministers.
2002 outcry
Addressing why the political representatives’ pay hike was so high, Holness told Thursday’s meeting that a similar public outcry took place in 2002 when then-Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced a pay increase of over 100 per cent for politicians.
“People forget the history that when the PJ Patterson administration announced the 102 per cent pay increase, back when I was just a newbie in Parliament, there was uproar and turmoil in the society. He [Patterson] appointed the Oliver Clarke-led committee to review it, and the committee gave a report to Parliament, and then they appointed a committee headed by Omar Davies to review the review,” said Holness.
“By 2003, the second part of the increase had to be scrapped because the Government then had to impose a wage freeze, so they didn’t get the full increase. Now we have put in place a system that will bring their pay to the correct level that they should be, which is just a huge jump,” the prime minister noted.